There are countless great books in the world, from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and George Orwell's Animal Farm. Some rise above the rest and are considered classics. However, one book has been widely described as among the most influential novels of the 20th century.
This book faced difficulties in getting published, let alone becoming an all-time great. In fact, two individuals, Jane Heap and Margaret Anderson, began publishing extracts from the book in their literary magazine The Little Review in 1918; they ended up being arrested and charged with publishing obscenity.
Years later, in 1922, the book was published in Paris by an American woman, Sylvia Beach. It did not reach an English-speaking country legally until 1934, when Random House successfully defended against obscenity charges and published it in the Modern Library. The book is, of course, Ulysses by James Joyce.
Now known as 'the greatest masterpiece of 20th-century prose,' as described by novelist Vladimir Nabokov, the book is celebrated. In Mark Manson's (a New York Times bestselling author) list of 'The 47 Best Fiction Books of All Time,' Ulysses comes out on top.
The book's synopsis reads: 'James Joyce's Ulysses is a monumental modernist masterpiece that chronicles the events of a single day—June 16, 1904—in Dublin, Ireland. It loosely maps the experiences of three main characters onto Homer's ancient Greek epic, the Odyssey. The narrative focuses on Leopold Bloom, an ordinary advertising canvasser; Stephen Dedalus, a struggling poet; and Bloom's wife, Molly.' The novel is divided into three books and 18 episodes.
Readers have taken to the book reviewing platform Goodreads to share their thoughts on the novel. One said: 'I did it. I finished it. And it was everything everyone said it would be: difficult, infuriating, brilliant, insane, genius, painful, etc. You get the idea, I'm sure. I can't even rate it. How do you rate a book that left you wide-eyed with awe at the author's brilliance, yet simultaneously made you want to bring him back to life just so you could kill him?'
Another said: 'Often considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, James Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses, is both a feat and feast of sheer literary brilliance. Reimagining Homer's epic poem The Odyssey as the travels and trials of an everyday man through the crowded streets and pubs of Dublin, Joyce weaves strikingly versatile prose styles and varying perspectives to encompass the whole of life within the hours of a single standard day, June 16th, 1904.'
